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Salem

About the 2003 Division III
men's basketball tournament

Williams' celebration on hold

By Pat Coleman
Publisher, D3hoops.com

By Jared Rosenbaum, D3hoops.com Williams alumnus and head coach Dave Paulsen did his mentor, former head coach Harry Sheehy, two wins better.

There was no celebration. No reception. No pep rally.

The national champion Ephs might as well have snuck into town unnoticed. They put their things back in their lockers, dropped off their laundry and watched the end of their 67-65 national championship win against Gustavus Adolphus up in head coach Dave Paulsen’s office.

And that was it. No ecstatic mass of students. No speeches. You see, a team that had such good timing throughout their run in Salem had the unfortunate timing of hoisting the Walnut and Bronze on the second day of Williams College’s two-week spring break.

So they’re celebrating individually for now.

“We got back to an empty campus and everyone’s dispersed to the seven corners of the universe,” said Paulsen, himself dispersed with his family to Florida. “Hopefully they’ll still be excited when everyone gets back to campus.”

Their post-championship celebration was reminiscent of so many previous years in Salem. Williams people talk about the get-together in the hotel lobby where Wooster All-American Bryan Nelson stopped by with congratulations. Or the Gustavus and Williams players talking in players’ rooms until the wee hours of the morning.

“That’s the neat thing in Division III,” Paulsen said. “As hard-fought as the games were the kids from Wooster and Gustavus were class acts. It really made it a special weekend.”

At most schools, winning the national championship would likely push a coach back out on the recruiting trail, perhaps to sway those last couple of kids who haven’t decided where they’ll be going in the fall. But at Williams, like the rest of the NESCAC (and Midwest Conference and SCIAC, among others), off-campus contact with recruits is prohibited.

“It’s too late to really capitalize,” said Paulsen. “All that process is a year down the road.”

So instead, Paulsen takes a moment to relax and be with his three kids, “making up for six months,” as he puts it. But the memories of Salem aren’t forgotten.

“It’s sinking in a little bit more every day. That first wee k was all surreal, a couple times a day I’d think ‘Wow, we won a national championship’. It was almost kind of numb after winning it all.”

If others’ experience is any indication, it will take at least six months before it fully sinks in. Maybe not even until after they open the 2003-04 season and raise the championship banner.

Those naysayers might be conveniently ignoring the fact that even if Wooster gets to a second overtime, Bryan Nelson’s mobility is worsening and his effectiveness could be limited. And Wooster was in far better shape than Gustavus Adolphus was. They had two starters and three of their top seven players fouled out in regulation, even without the ticky-tack foul that put Tim Folan on the line for the game-winning points.

In short, you make your own luck. They put themselves in position to win the game and bring the Bronze and Walnut home to Williamstown for the first time ever in men’s basketball.

“I think one of the reasons why, despite not leading much of the time, our kids didn’t panic was because they’ve been in such pressurized environments four times this year with Amherst,” said Paulsen. “That really prepared us, our kids didn’t get rattled.”

Let’s just say the Ephs will no longer be satisfied with simply beating Amherst.

SPEAK FOR YOURSELVES: We were criticized in March, and perhaps fairly, for essentially being the mouthpiece of the NCAA men’s committee.

Do understand – that is not our intent. Our intent is to try to predict what will happen, so that if a team gets a perceived snub they can’t say they weren’t warned. And afterwards, we attempt to read the tea leaves, look at what actually did happen, and see what in the selection criteria could be used to explain it. And if the committee is wrong (ahem, Capital), we will certainly call them on it.

But in the absence of any communication from the committee to the general public the last couple of years, we’re the only voice left on the subject. And even though the NCAA folks said they read our explanations of how they came to their decisions, it doesn’t make us feel any better that in addition to compiling a ton of information they use in their weekly conference calls, we’re doing this job for them as well.

In short, know that we have asked the committee to reinstate their post-selection press conference, so that even if the general public doesn’t get to ask questions in that forum, schools and the media do so in an open setting. They say they will consider it.

But readers, remember that the NCAA doesn’t really like to explain anything.

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